TPT January 2012

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January 2012 79 ›
Technology Update
THE INTERNATIONAL ONLINE FAIR
PIPELINE construction is labour and cost
intensive, but there are definitely possibilities
for rationalisation. These are not only due
to the installation of economical production
machines; they are also a result of the optimal
organisation of the value-added processes
by the well-aimed application of intelligent
software systems.
Both disciplines must be seen together,
however, if the greatest possible benefit
is to be achieved. With pipe bending and
pipe processing machines and system and
software solutions, custom-made to meet the
special demands in pipeline construction (eg
in the shipbuilding and offshore industry or
plant engineering), Tracto-Technik (TT) has
solutions for these optimisation processes.
With the modular-designed Pipefab
production management software pack,
TT provides a branch solution for pipeline
constructionwith far-reachingCIMfunctionality,
which integrates all areas of the life cycle
of pipelines digitally – from engineering to
material management and production to
assembly. The basic idea behind the Pipefab
development was to reproduce demands from
the practice in efficient systems and link them
to universal solutions.
The establishment of a P&ID (piping and
instrumentation diagram), pipeline plans and
isometric pipeline drawings is part of the
single construction and planning steps. These
isometric drawings can easily be uploaded in
Pipefab from the different 3D-CAD systems
used for constructing pipeline systems via
interfaces. It is also possible to generate
isometric pipe drawings from the measured
data of different kinds of 3D pipe measuring
systems (eg measurement of defective pipes
which are going to be replaced) or to generate
them directly with the help of an isometric
drawing module integrated in Pipefab.
The isometric pipe drawings are stored in
a central database, and they represent the
basic data for production. Among others, the
software draws up work plans and spools,
takes over the calculation of production times
and costs, performs storage management
(including the functions of material
requirement planning); it issues bending,
sawing or flame cutting lists and provides
CNC data for the available processing
machines in production.
The optimisation process starts with
the pipe prototype held ready at the pipe
inventory. The storage management module
for the control of the pipe inventory, conveying
system and sawing unit integrated in Pipefab
also includes a blank optimisation function
which can minimise the sawing waste and so
optimise material consumption by calculating
the delivery lengths and remaining pieces.
An additional preview function for material
requirements shows up possible shortage
in quantity and allows acquiring the
necessary pipe material in good time. By
combining single production units from the
central Pipefab database, production orders
(production lots) are generated.
Tracto-Technik GmbH & Co KG –
Germany
Email:
Website: pipebending.tracto-technik.com
Life cycle management for pipelines
Pipefab supports the entire lifecycle of pipes and pipeline systems, combining engineering and production technology
All documents relevant
for production can be
taken from the isometric
pipe drawing and its
corresponding piece lists